# Date: 1905

TO
AN UNFINISHED
NOTE
("VALUABLE
ADMISSIONS")

au lendemain même de l'oukase <|ui l'élève aux fonctions de pre- 
mier-ministre il prend son point d'appui là où M. Bouliguine ne 
rencontrait que résistance et qu'opposition: il recherche l'alliance 
des constitutionnalistes de Moscou. M. 111. L\ov, Kokoschkine, A. Go- 
lovine, appelés au conseil, sont les premiers voyageurs qui pro
fitent du rétablissement de la circulation sur le chemin de fer .Ni
colas pour gagner SP-bg. M. Ghipof reçoit l'offre d'un porte
feuille. M. Struve... quitte P aris...
... Ces avances empressées au parti radical n'ont d'abord ren
contré que scepticisme ...
... Le pas franchement fait dans la direction des constitution- 
nalistes, les gages qui leur sont offerts, ne désarment pas leur hos
tilité, mais affaiblissent pourtant leur opposition. La plupart d'entre 
eux — M. Struve est de ce nombre — répugnent à la coopération 
que les chefs socialistes ont eu l'habileté de leur imposer lors de 
la crise, et qu'ils continuent de leur offrir pour l'avenir. Geux-là 
tracent une ligne de démarcation bien nette entre le champ de leur 
activité réformatrice et celui de revendications ouvrières; leur pro
bité politique ne peut que prendre^ l'éveil d'un quiproquo qui tend 
à les évincer de la scène au profit d'acteurs turbulents, toujours 
prêts a passer au drame et résignés d'a\ance à des dénouements 
sanglants. Ces constitutionnalistes purs placent l'ouvrier russe sur 
l'alignement du paysan, quand il s'agit du dénombrement politique 
général et de la distribution des droits communs. Ces droits une 
fois acquis — et ils sont tous près de l'être — le second objet de 
leurs préoccupations ne serait pas encore la solution de la question 
sociale, mais bien de la question agraire, qui s'impose à eux de par 
la prépondérance numérique de 80 millions de paysans malheureux 
sur 5 millions seulement d'ouvriers mécontents. Ce programme lé
gèrement atténué, ou simplement divisé en autant de parties qu'il 
se pourra, pour ies résoudre l'une après l'autre, au jour le jour, 
paraît pouvoir devenir celui du comte W ijUe.
L'avenir dira si les zemshvos consentent de leur côté à un ar
rangement amiable et s'ils acceptent le patronat politique offert avec 
tant d'empressement à leurjsj leaders par le président du conseil. 
Nul doute que le congrès nouveau, dont l'omerture est annoncée 
pour le 19 à Moscou, ne doive inscrire cette question capitale h 
son ordre du jour. Nul doute non plus que dès à présent, l éveil 
des forces réactionnaires et les collisions \iolentes entre les ban
des rouges et les bandes noires signalées le 1 nov. ici même, a

LENIN MISCELLANY

Moscou, à Kicff et partout, ne soient pour les réformateurs pres
sés un utile avertissement. On ne saurait, du jour au lendemain, 
constituer un peuple si longtemps étranger à toutes les libertés ; on 
ne saurait détacher de l'autocratie une masse nationale qui n'a ja
mais eu pour credo polilique que Famour de son souverain. Ces 
propositions évidentes aux yeux des tiers, mais trop souvent oubliées 
par les acteurs dans l'ardeur de la lutte, viennent d'etre démont
rées à nouveau par une foule réfractaire aux bienfaits consli- 
tutionnels. Rappelée par elle a l'ordre, remise en face de ces vé- 
rites élémentaires, l'opposition accordera peut-être au comte Л\ ittr 
le répit dont il a besoin pour former autour de lui une concen
tration d'opinion et pour marquer sous les couleurs nationales, à 
mi distance de l'étendart dynastique et du drapeau rouge, une po
sition de juste milieu.»
(End of correspondence.)
[Translation.]

"Le Temps," November 11. Letter from a special correspondent 
from St. Petersburg of October 5, highly instructive. Title: "Constitutionalists 
and Socialists."

It is difficult to orient oneself amid the storm, the correspondent begins, but-------

"One circumstance stands out clearly. This is the purely socialist character 
of that agitation which preceded the granting of the manifesto and which 
followed the manifesto. Red banners, singing of the Marseillaise, revolutionary 
speeches—we saw and heard nothing else. It is true that the people have won 
a great constitutional victory, but they owe this victory to the entry onto the 
stage and mobilization of socialist forces. The railroad strike and the general 
stoppage of economic life accomplished for the victory more in a single week 
than all the six-month efforts of the Moscow constitutional party.

"This unexpected impetus has revealed the hidden forces of the party, 
showing such strength of its organization and such firm determination to em
ploy all the means at its disposal, of which no one had suspected; . . . this 
fact especially underscores the necessity of striking a powerful blow at the 
Left, if the ruling spheres wish to remain in power. The Russian government 
has understood this, and Count Witte has understood it even better—he, who 
on the very day after the ukase that elevated him to the post of prime min
ister, began to seek support where Mr. Bulyguin encountered nothing but re
sistance and opposition—that is, began to seek an alliance with the Moscow 
constitutionalists. Messrs. L'vov, Kokoshkin, and A. Golovin, summoned to

TO AN UNFINISHED NOTE "VALUABLE ADMISSIONS"

the council, were the first passengers who took advantage of the resumption 
of traffic on the Nicholas Railway to travel to St. Petersburg. Mr. Shipov is 
offered a portfolio. Mr. Struve . . . leaves Paris . . .

. . . The eager advances made to the radical party were at first met with 
skepticism . . .

. . . The concessions openly made to the constitutionalists, the guarantees 
granted to them—all this does not diminish their hostile disposition, but it 
does weaken their opposition. The majority of them, including Mr. Struve, are 
opponents of collaboration which, at the beginning of the crisis, the socialist 
leaders succeeded in cleverly imposing upon them and which they continue to 
offer them for the future. They draw a sharp line between the sphere of their 
reformist activity and the sphere of workers' demands; their political honesty 
compels them to beware of every misunderstanding that might lead to their 
being displaced from the stage by restless actors, always ready to pass to drama 
and in advance resigned to a bloody denouement. These pure constitutionalists, 
in general-political respects and in the question of the distribution of general 
rights, place the Russian worker on the same line as the peasant. After the ac
quisition of all these rights—and we stand on the eve of this—their next task 
will be the resolution not of the social question, but of the agrarian question, 
which confronts them thanks to the numerical superiority of 80 million unfor
tunate peasants over 5 million discontented workers. This program, in a some
what mitigated form, or more precisely divided into several parts for its gradual 
implementation, can apparently also become the program of Count Witte.

The future will show whether the zemstvos will for their part agree to a 
friendly arrangement and whether they will accept the political patronage so 
eagerly offered their leaders by the Chairman of the Council. There is no doubt 
that the awakening of reactionary forces and sharp collisions between red and 
black bands that occurred on November 1 here, in Moscow, Kiev, and many 
other places, will serve as a useful warning to the overly hasty reformers. 
One cannot in a single day accustom to constitutional government a people to 
whom all freedoms have long been alien; one cannot tear away from the au
tocrat the popular masses, who have never had any other political creed than 
love for their sovereign. All this—truths evident to the outside observer, but 
often forgotten in the heat of the struggle by the actors themselves—have now 
been demonstrated anew by a people who resist all the benefits of constitution. 
Perhaps the oppositionists, whom this people are calling to order and who now 
stand face to face with these elementary truths, will give Count Witte the res
pite he needs to create around himself a concentration of opinion and, under 
the shelter of the national flag, to occupy the golden mean between the dynas
tic standard and the red banner."

(End of correspondence.)

VALUABLE ADMISSIONS.

Conservative European bourgeoisie, in assessing the recent events in Russia, 
sometimes make extraordinarily valuable admissions. Here, for example, is an 
extremely instructive letter from a special St. Petersburg correspondent of the 
newspaper Le Temps of November 5 [October 23]. It is entitled: "Constitution
alists and Socialists." The author begins by pointing out how difficult it is dur
ing a political storm to clearly discern the position and action of various forces. 
Certain things, however, are becoming clear:

"One circumstance stands out clearly. This is the purely socialist character 
of that agitation which preceded the granting of the manifesto (October 17), 
and which followed the manifesto. Red banners, singing of the Marseillaise, 
revolutionary speeches—we saw and heard nothing else. It is true that the 
people have won a great constitutional victory, but . . . (this remarkable 
"but"!) . . . but they owe this victory to the entry onto the stage and mobili
zation (déploiment) of socialist forces. The railroad strike and the general stop
page of economic life accomplished for the victory more in a single week than 
all the six-month efforts of the Moscow constitutional party.

* LETTER TO G. D. LEYTAYZEN WITH A REQUEST TO WRITE AN 
INTERVIEW WITH GUESDE, LAFARGUE, AND BRACKE.
[November, 1905]

Dear A.! Please, do not begrudge the effort to write an article or at least a 
note about your interview with Guesde, Lafargue, and Bracke about a tempo
rary revolutionary government and our participation. This is necessary for 
Proletariat (or for New Life, depending on circumstances). Even if just a few 
lines, but do write and quickly!

Your N. Lenin

¹ The note about the interview with Guesde, Lafargue, and Bracke that Lenin requested 
was sent by G. D. Leytayzen and published under the heading "Guesdists and the Participa
tion of Russian Social-Democrats in a Temporary Revolutionary Government" in No. 26 of 
"Proletariat" of November 25 (12), 1905 (see Appendix).

Appendix.

Guesdists and the Participation of Russian Social-Democrats in a Temporary Revolutionary 
Government.

I took advantage of my stay at the Chalon Congress to ascertain the opinion of our French 
Guesdist comrades regarding the possible participation of Russian social-democrats in a tempo
rary revolutionary government. This opinion is all the more interesting and important for us be
cause our "ultradialecticians," offended in their time-tested orthodox-revolutionary feelings by 
the combination of the words "participation . . . in the government," hastened to accuse the 
Bolsheviks of Jauresism, Millerandism, and other such transgressions; and this opinion is especial
ly precious for us because the rich experience, the uncontested revolutionary Marxism, the stub
born and energetic struggle against Millerandism lend special authority to the views of the Gues
dists. I conversed with three leaders of the Guesdist faction: Jules Guesde, Lafargue, and Bracke.

My question was formulated as follows: do Russian social-democrats have the right, from the 
standpoint of revolutionary Marxism, to participate in a temporary revolutionary government cre
ated by a national uprising?

Bracke. For me there has never been any doubt about this; more than once in Paris I have 
expressed my opinion on this matter to comrade Velsky. I cannot express myself so categorically 
on the question of the State Duma, because for this one would need to be well acquainted with 
the state of Russian affairs.

Lafargue. Russian social-democrats should enter the temporary government in order to struggle 
against counter-revolution; they should be

Lenin Miscellany XVI.